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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Cucumber and Sour Cream Salad

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Cucumbers and peppers of all types come to market with a vengeance at this time of year. While there are scores of recipes for peppers, it's harder to find new and interesting ways to prepare cucumbers. I make the usual relish and pickles, and, of course, add them to fish and chicken salads, but it is hard to find truly new ways to use cucumbers. I tend to fall back on the recipes of my childhood and use them with only slight changes to accommodate more modern tastes and better ingredients. The home I grew up in was in a multi-cultural neighborhood and we had Swedish neighbors to our right and German neighbors to our left. I've spoken before with great fondness of Mrs. P and Hannie. They were an important part of my childhood and my love affair with food began in their kitchens. Each kitchen had its own version of cucumber salad and both were delicious. One was vinegar based and the other relied on sour cream. They both, however, shared a preparation technique that guaranteed an outstanding salad. They would salt their cucumbers and let them sit for several hours before adding them to salads. The salting drew moisture from the cucumbers and assured they would be crisp. Once rinsed, they were patted dry and covered with sour cream or vinegar. The result was always a crackly crisp salad that even Lucullus would enjoy. Years ago, I stumbled on a recipe for a cucumber and sour cream salad in House and Garden magazine. It has become a fixture in my kitchen at this time of year. It really is simple to make and I think you'll enjoy it. Here's the recipe.
Cucumber and Sour Cream Salad...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite inspired by House and Garden Magazine

Directions:
1) Dissolve salt and sugar in vinegar, add the sour cream and stir smooth. You may like more or less vinegar, salt or sugar, but don't make dressing too sweet. Add the chives, dill and celery seed.
2) Slice unpared cucumbers paper-thin and combine with dressing. Chill for 1 hour or more. Sour cream cucumbers improve in taste as they stand and flavor of cucumbers seeps into dressing. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Childhood memories for sure. Our family (for as far back as I know) has had a very similar recipe on the table at every big gathering. Ours uses whipped cream. I think I would really enjoy this one, too. Thank you for the tip about salting the cucumbers. blessings ~ tanna

I think cucumber salads were a fixture at most summer dinners! And my mother did the salt technique as well for I loved to sneak those salty cucumber slices whenever I walked through the kitchen. We were of the vinegar group -- I never ate one with sour cream until I was an adult.

This reminds me of my childhood too. My mother was partial to the sour cream version but the vinegar version was always thrown in every now and then for a change. I'm going to have to try your recipe as it sounds a bit more flavorful than Mom's.

Thanks so much for posting this. My husband just asked me to track down a similar recipe that his family always made with cucumbers, evaporated milk, and vinegar that he loves so I'm going to try this as it sounds like it may do the trick. This is perfect timing Mary! Thank you!!

My mother and grandmother used a simple syrup, vinegar and salt for cucumbers, my Thai friend adds fish sauce and crushed red pepper to the simple syrup/vinegar and my Hungarian friend's recipe is very similar to yours. Me? I love them all!

I love cuke salad so much! I like how you added chives and celery salt to jazz it up more. I made a version from Ina Garten if you'd like to check it out. It was unusual in that she used yogurt!?! But it was delish!

You're bringing back lots of good memories - my mother made this all the time when I was young! She'd make a plainer version though: she'd skip the dill and peel the "cukes" and use white vinegar, but everyone has their own version... But she would salt them and leave them to drain, like your neighbors though. I haven't made these myself in ages. Thanks for the reminder. Isn't it wonderful when we think of our old memories? Thanks for sharing.Best,Gloria

Thank you so much for coming over and I'm so glad that you enjoy your visit.

I cannot get enough of your recipes and delicious photos! I tried making a cucumber salad a couple of weeks ago, but it was just okay and it became too watery. I'm going to give yours a try, it looks SUPER good, plus we still have a few cucumbers left from the garden!

I made these this past week & BOY-O-BOY is your version better than the way I was doing it before. Waaaaay more flavor & crunch!

I asked DH how he liked them & he said, quote "mmmmMMMMMMMMmmmmmm!!" Voice inflection depicted by the capital letters. I'm really glad I still had some fresh dill growing so I could try it. Most of it has dried & gone to seed for next year's crop.I also think the celery seed added a great deal of flavor.

From now on, THIS is how I'll be making it.Thank you SO much for sharing the recipe, Mary.

This is my (and lots of my friends) favourite salad, too. This salad has been going on in our family for years. I don't put celery seeds into my salad but I will try it out, I love celery seeds. I usually put either fresh garlic or garlic salt into my cucumber/sour cream salad.

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